European stocks tally 2% rise in November

Narrow moves mark major bourses’ final session of the month

LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stock markets ended a choppy Friday session on a modestly downbeat note, as worries over the U.S. ”fiscal cliff” weighed on investors’ minds, although German approval for Greece’s latest rescue deal served to underpin bullish sentiment.

The benchmark’s performance, however, was more upbeat both in weekly and monthly terms: It closed out November 2% higher, marking the sixth straight month of gains, and added 0.9% on the week.

“What’s been remarkable this week is that we have seen a strong improvement in the euro and 10-year Italian [government] bond yields have fallen to 4.5%,” said Andreas Hurkamp, equity market strategist at Commerzbank.

“It becomes more and more clear that the ECB’s [Outright Monetary Transactions] program is really the game changer in the crisis,” he added, referring to the European Central Bank.

“Now investors really realize that and are trying to figure out what to do with their money. German and corporate bonds are not attractive anymore, so first they move into government bonds with higher yields like Italy’s, but they also buy into the equity market,” Hurkamp said.

Germany approves Greece debt plan

Markets, however, got a helping hand from Germany, where the Bundestag reportedly approved the latest measures to help reduce Greece’s debt pile. Euro-zone finance ministers agreed earlier this week to cut interest rates on Greece’s bailout loans, defer interest payments and allow the country to buy back around 30 billion euros in debt.

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